It has been made clear by recent events in Prague that citizens of the Czech Republic place a high value on media freedom. The appointment of Mr Jiri Hodac as director general of the Czech state television service has raised the issue of political cronyism. Journalists have barricaded themselves into the Prague studios. More than 100,000 people have taken to the streets in protest and parliament has begun a process which should soon lead to Mr Hodac's removal from office.
Political appointments to the main television services, with consequent influence on programming, have not been unknown in many countries in Western Europe but the response has been one of apathy, both from journalists and the general public. However, the people of the Czech Republic have a bitter historical experience in this sphere. They are more aware than most, that creeping politicisation of the media, particularly of television, needs constant vigilance.
As the head of the Czechoslovak communist party in 1968, Mr Alexander Dubcek introduced a policy of media freedom which led to what became known as "The Prague Spring." Freedom of speech brought a feast of information to a people whose diet had previously been restricted to views approved by the Kremlin in Moscow. Under Mr Jiri Pelikan, later a naturalised-Italian Socialist MEP, the state television operated without censorship for the first time. The newspaper Mlada Fronta, under the editorship of Mr Miroslav Jelinek, published the famous "Two Thousand Words" by eminent Czech scientists calling for further liberalisaiton and reform.
Back in Moscow, there was dismay at Mr Dubcek's attempts to introduce what he called "socialism with a human face." Pravda described the Mlada Fronta article as "the engine of treason." A notorious letter of invitation was sent by Czechoslovak hard liners to "Dear Leonid Ilyich" (Brezhnev) asking him to provide assistance with "all the means at your disposal."
Those means were provided in August 1968 in the form of tank regiments from the Soviet Union and a number of its client states. The brief experiment was brutally crushed but the people had tasted freedom and recent events show that they still cherish it. Attempts in these times to tinker with media liberty has set off alarm bells in countries where censorship was once the norm. The alarm is justified, for a worrying tendency to revert to the old ways is developing not only in the Czech republic.
In Russia, President Putin's administration has moved towards ensuring that the only major media group which opposed his election is brought to heel. There are attempts to place political restrictions on newspaper articles in Hungary. Much remains to be done in Serbia to free television from political shackles.
Not for the first time in recent history, have the Czech people set an example for the rest of the world. It is an example not only to be welcomed. It is to be admired.